How effective are AI agents?

AI agents have been sold with the promise of fully automating tasks without the need for step-by-step instructions

The words "How effective are AI agents?" set against a dark blue background bearing the silhouettes of flowchart rectangles and diamonds to represent the computation and decisions made by AI agents. The words "AI agents" are yellow, while the others are white. The ITPro Podcast logo is in the bottom right-hand corner.
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Computer systems that can autonomously work on menial tasks have been the promise of technologists – and science fiction authors – for decades. While we’ve dabbled with the likes of robotic process automation and machine learning in the past, the arrival of advanced AI software has put these lofty ambitions back on the table.

According to AI developers, new systems known as AI agents will free up workers as never before, with the ability to autonomously complete tasks based on pre-approved instructions and by contextually processing new data.

What does all this mean for businesses, and how far can AI agents really go? In this episode, Rory is joined by Paul O’Sullivan, UKI CTO at Salesforce, to discuss the potential for AI agents in the workplace.

Highlights

“Agentic AI has far broader ability now. So we're using AI to not just generate text but actually to reason on what the human is trying to achieve, and actually try and understand from that reasoning capability the actions that need to be executed, and then fulfilling that promise by actually allowing the agent to take the action.”

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“When we all looked a couple years back at chatbots and digital channels of engagement with customers to facilitate queries, it was all about deflection. Everybody wanted to deflect from the contact center because our human workers were tremendously overwhelmed. I think our customers, and what I'm seeing now from our customers, is this presents the opportunity not to deflect, but to drive resolution.”

“So when you define the topics, you then need to set the instructions. And these instructions act as the guardrails. For example, don't necessarily talk about a competitor, or always check and verify somebody's email address, or ask them to authenticate themselves. So again, the instructions act as guardrails, and kind of keep that safety net and trust established.”

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Rory Bathgate
Rory Bathgate
Features and Multimedia Editor

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.

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